


Friday Night Defense

by mayfield84



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Lumax, Mike is a Meanie, protective lucas, the party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 07:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19970362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayfield84/pseuds/mayfield84
Summary: Lucas didn’t often feel the need to yell at his friends. Of course they had fought before- all friends fight occasionally, but this time, he was really angry. Really angry. And he wasn’t scared to let them know it.





	Friday Night Defense

**Author's Note:**

> this is a prompt i received from monica, who commended on my Christmas Miracles fic: “I would really love to see some protective lucas (defending max maybe from Billy or Neil) because I just think it would be really great and show how much he cares for max...” and i decided since there is a lot of that being posted nowadays, i would go in a different direction and have lucas protect max from someone else!

Lucas didn’t often feel the need to yell at his friends. Of course they had fought before- all friends fight occasionally, but this time, he was really angry. _Really_ angry .

It had started off as a casual Friday night in February of 1985. The Party (now including Max, who he had been dating since the Snow Ball just 2 months ago) were all gathered in the Wheeler’s basement for their typical weekend get-together. It was a slow and uneventful evening, mostly consisting of board games like Scrabble (which Will dominated), Monopoly (where Dustin crushed everyone, the bastard), and last but not least, Clue.

“God  _dammit_ Max , that’s the fourth round in a row you’ve won,” Mike grit his teeth, throwing down his pencil in frustration. It bounced and landed in Will’s lap.

Max looked on in sympathetic apathy through narrowed eyes. She was just really, really good at Clue; maybe it had something to do with reading all of those Nancy Drew books in 6th grade. The redhead gave Mike a shrug.

“You must be cheating. That’s the only answer. Nobody guesses 4 rounds of correctly Clue in a row,” He decided, glaring daggers at her.

“Mike, calm down, it’s just a game,” Dustin said, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder. But Mike shrugged it off and stood up.

“I’m not cheating!” Max defended herself, standing and facing the lanky boy. She didn’t usually think much of his impatience and tendency to jump to conclusions, but it was really starting to get on her nerves. He had the  _audacity_ to call her a cheater just for being good at something.

The rest of the Party looked on in distress as the fiery redhead took a threatening step closer to Mike. Lucas in particular was on edge. His eyes grew wide as they glared at each other, and his blood began to simmer.

“Max, you may not have been part of the Party for long, but you should at least know that  _Friends. Never. Lie_ _.”_ Mike spat angrily, his fists balled at his sides.

“If you can’t accept that and follow that, then you  _can’t_ be part of the Party.”

Lucas noticed a flash of hurt in Max’s eyes as she was taken aback by Mike’s blatant rejection of her friendship. But the pain was quickly replaced with more fire than there was before. She took another step closer, her feet planted firm into the ground.

“Yeah, well, if you can’t accept that I  _am_ telling the truth and if you can’t accept that I just want to be your friend then I don’t  _want_ to be part of your stupid Party,” she hissed, seething with anger. Her words hung heavy in the silent room as she spun around, huffed, and abruptly left the room.

After a few seconds the boys heard a slam as the door at the top of the stairs closed with a sense of finality that made Lucas boil over.

The dark-skinned boy stood up and glared Mike down. “Dude, are you serious ? How could you? How _dare_ you say that? All Max has wanted since meeting us was to be our friend, trying so desperately to gain our trust, even though she would never show it. She _cares_ about you guys,” he motioned around the room, not noticing Will and Dustin’s mouths agape, “and all you’ve done since you’ve met her is shoot her down. Mike, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she’s not trying to replace El . She never was! You’re so _obsessed_ with the idea that she’s trying to ‘beat’ El that you’re too blind to see that Max is her own unique person, and a pretty _damn_ cool one at that! If you’re so closed-minded that you can’t accept someone who has helped us through so much, if you can’t see that Max is every _bit_ as deserving of our friendship as El is, then maybe I don’t want to be a part of the Party anymore either,” Lucas growled, before stomping up the stairs.

He knew that was probably a little extreme; Lucas could feel years of friendship slipping away each time he ascended another step. But in that moment, he didn’t care. All he could think about was the fact that his girlfriend was somewhere feeling things she didn’t deserve to feel. He had to fix that.

As Lucas ran out the front door, he noticed a small blip of coppery red in a distant street light.

“Max, wait up!” He called, climbing on his bike and pedaling after her. It didn’t take long to notice she wasn’t even skating- the board dangled limply where she was carrying it at her side. She was walking. Slowly.

“Lucas?” She stopped walking and turned to her boyfriend as he rode up next to her. The redhead looked slightly angry, but mostly sad. Her eyes were red as though she had been crying.

“Max, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what got into Mike and possessed him to say those things- a Mind Flayer, maybe- but I promise, none of us believe what he said,” Lucas said, dropping his bike and taking her free hand in both of his. But she wouldn’t meet his gaze. 

He continued.

”I yelled at him. I told him I didn’t want to be a part of the Party anymore if he was going to keep being... well, a dick. He doesn’t get to treat anyone like that,” Lucas concluded, his heart swelling when she finally lifted her gaze to meet his, “he doesn’t get to treat _you_ like that. I like you too much to let that happen, Madmax.”

She nodded. “Thank you.” Max replied simply, having trouble holding her eyes steady on his. Lucas’ eyes were such a lovely warm brown, so intense, so concerned, so... caring. Her heart fluttered nervously.

“Can I kiss you?” Lucas asked, his voice quiet and wavering ever so slightly. Obviously, they had kissed before, 3 times to be exact, but this time felt  different . And he felt like he needed to ask.

“Yes, Stalker, you can kiss me,” Max laughed breathily, closing her eyes.

With a smooth movement Lucas leaned in (keeping his eyes open at first just to make sure he was aiming properly) and closed his eyes as his lips touched hers. Then, they kissed. They _really_ kissed. With her free hand Max wrapped her arm around the back of his neck, standing on her toes to reach, and Lucas placed his hands gently on her hips. It felt so real, so natural, so right , standing there kissing her under the street lamp at the corner of two roads. He wasn’t sure how long the kiss lasted (probably only a few seconds) but it felt like a blissful eternity.

Max bit her lip as she pulled away, suddenly missing the feeling of his mouth against hers.

“Now, I noticed there are still a few hours before you have to be home for curfew,” Lucas said quietly, glancing at his watch.  “How about we go see a movie and share a milkshake afterwards?”

Max grabbed his hand and smirked. “What, are we from the 60’s now?” She teased as Lucas picked up his bike.

“Only if you want us to be, cutie,” he promised, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Max felt her face heat up.

“Far out,” she responded, giggling. 

He hopped on his bike and motioned for her to join him. 

“As much as I want to, Stalker,” Max eyed him, “I have my own ride.” She put her board on the ground and mounted it.

“Let’s see if you can keep up,” Lucas teased, riding away on his bike. Max followed.

Yeah, they both would have liked for Max to ride with Lucas on his bike, They wanted to touch; they wanted to be close. But there was no need to fret. There would be plenty of time for that later.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed!! send me some more prompts because this was definitely very fun to write :D


End file.
